北魏正光期河北派金銅仏の一典刑―メトロポリタン美術館蔵正光五年銘金銅弥勒仏について―=A Typical Example of Buddhist Bronze of Hopei Style in the Cheng-Kuang Period, Northern Wei: the Maitreya Dated the Year Cheng-Kuang 5 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The statue of Maitreya dated the year Chêng-kuang 5 (A.D. 524) in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Arts, New York, is probably the finest existing specimen of Chinese gilt-bronze Buddhist sculpture. It is characterized, among others, by the powerful treatment of its robe whose lower ends spead sideways, and the strictly symmetrical representation of the whole group with the attendant Bodhisattvas, worshipping priests, guardian spirits and even the apsaras (heavenly maidens in flight) on the halo arranged in a regular symmetry. In all respects it represents the formalistic beauty achieved by Northern Wei sculpture. Its workmanship is accurate and elaborate. Its detailed parts well show the Northern Wei style, and its general effect typifies what may be termed Chêngkuang Style, which extends over the earlier periods of Yen-ch‘ang to Shên-kuei (512—519) and the following periods of Hsiao-ch‘ang (525–527) to the end of Northen Wei. It is notable that the influence of this style continued into the Eastern Wei, and that its tradition was retained even by some of giltbronze Bodhisattva figures in the Northern Ch‘i and of the still later Sui. The Maitreya statue under discussion was reportedly discovered in the suburbs of Chêng-ting, Hopei. According to the inscription on it, it was made at the wish of a man of Hsin-shih-hsien, though the second character in this place-name is somewhat hard to decipher. Hsin-shih-hsien is a place which belonged during the Northern Wei period to Chung-shan-chün, Ting-chou and which is located to the southwest of what is now Hsin-lo-hsien, Hopei. It is clear, fron this inscription, that the statue was made in Hopei. There exist considerable numbers of gilt-bronze statues from the Northern to Eastern Wei which bear inscriptions attesting to or suggesting their connection with Hopei, and many of them are fine works of art. A question here arises : does Chêng-kuang Style have especially close connection with Hopei? In order to answer this question, it is necessary to study whether or not it was in use throughout the land of Northern Wei Dynasty. Unfortunately we do not have sufficient materials in this respect, but it is significant to know that certain differences of style exist in stone statues in the Shantung-Hopei area, Honan and Shanhsi. It is still more important that in Hopei during the Northern Wei, even statues of white marble manifested distinctly the Chêng-kuang Style characterized by sharp sidewise spread of the robe and the strongly symbolic representation. Where we might as well expect statues with gentle, soft effect matching the quality of white marble, they produced ones with such a powerful, symbolic style. The fact tells that the Chêng-kuang Style was esteemed highly in Hopei. The refinement attained by this conventional style in Hopei gave birth to the master work in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which remains as the peak of gilt-bronze sculpture in the second half of the Northern Wei to, the Northern Ch‘i periods.
